§ MR. CORRANCEasked the President of the Board of Trade, Whether it is intended to bring in or proceed with any measure to amend the Law relating to Merchant Shipping during the present Session of Parliament?
§ MR. CHICHESTER FORTESCUE,in reply, said, that he certainly did not intend to introduce this Session the Merchant Shipping Code Bill, which he found had been prepared by the Board of Trade when first he went there; and the main reason was that he found a horror entertained by all parties interested in this subject of dealing with a Bill o such size and complexity either before the House or in a Select Committee to which he had been assured that it must necessarily be referred. Matters being in this position, he had made up his mind not to bring in the Bill as a whole. He was not quite sure that the hon. Members understood the nature of that Bill. The measure was mainly a consolidation of Commercial Law, but including a great number of minute and detailed amendments, the amount of new legislation of any important character being very limited. There were portions of the Bill, however, which he hoped to be able to deal with in the present Session, and especially that portion which related to the Passenger Laws, a subject Upon which the Government were now in correspondence with the United States Government.